ancient Rome In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 B ...

, the ''fasti'' (

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

plural) were

chronological Chronology (from Latin ''chronologia'', from Ancient Greek , ''chrónos'', "time"; and , ''-logia'') is the science of arranging events in their order of occurrence in time. Consider, for example, the use of a timeline or sequence of events. It ...

calendar A calendar is a system of organizing days. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months and years. A date is the designation of a single and specific day within such a system. A calendar is also a physi ...

-based lists, or other

diachronic Synchrony and diachrony are two complementary viewpoints in linguistic analysis. A ''synchronic'' approach (from grc, συν- "together" and "time") considers a language at a moment in time without taking its history into account. Synchronic l ...

records or plans of official and religiously sanctioned events. After Rome's decline, the word ''fasti'' continued to be used for similar records in

Christian Europe Christendom historically refers to the Christian states, Christian-majority countries and the countries in which Christianity dominates, prevails,SeMerriam-Webster.com : dictionary, "Christendom"/ref> or is culturally or historically intertwine ...

and later

Western culture Leonardo da Vinci's ''Vitruvian Man''. Based on the correlations of ideal Body proportions">human proportions with geometry described by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius in Book III of his treatise ''De architectura''. image:Plato Pio-Cle ...

. Public business, including the official business of the

Roman state In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 B ...

, had to be transacted on ''

dies fasti In ancient Rome, the ''fasti'' (Latin plural) were chronological or calendar-based lists, or other diachronic records or plans of official and religiously sanctioned events. After Rome's decline, the word ''fasti'' continued to be used for simil ...

'', "allowed days". The ''fasti'' were the records of this business. In addition to the word's general sense, there were ''fasti'' that recorded specific kinds of events, such as the ''fasti triumphales'', lists of

triumphs ''Triumphs'' (Italian language, Italian: ''I Trionfi'') is a 14th-century Italian series of poems, written by Petrarch in the Tuscan language. The poem evokes the Roman triumph, Roman ceremony of triumph, where victorious generals and their armies ...

celebrated by Roman generals. The divisions of time used in the ''fasti'' were based on the

Roman calendar The Roman calendar was the calendar used by the Roman Kingdom and Roman Republic. The term often includes the Julian calendar established by the reforms of the Roman dictator, dictator Julius Caesar and Roman emperor, emperor Augustus in the ...

. The yearly records of the ''fasti'' encouraged the writing of history in the form of chronological ''annales'', "annals," which in turn influenced the development of

Roman historiography Roman historiography stretches back to at least the 3rd century BC and was indebted to earlier Greek historiography. The Romans relied on previous models in the Greek tradition such as the works of Herodotus (c. 484 – 425 BC) and Thucydides (c. ...

Etymology

''Fasti'' is the plural of the Latin adjective ''fastus'', most commonly used as a

substantive A noun () is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.Example nouns for: * Living creatures (including people, alive, d ...

. The word derives from '' fas'', meaning "that which is permitted," that is, "that which is legitimate in the eyes of the gods." ''Fasti dies'' were the days on which business might be transacted without impiety, in contrast to '' dies nefasti'', days on which assemblies and courts could not convene. The word ''fasti'' itself came to denote lists organized by time. The temporal structure distinguished ''fasti'' from ''

regesta Papal regesta are the copies, generally entered in special registry volumes, of the papal letters and official documents that are kept in the papal archives. The name is also used to indicate subsequent publications containing such documents, in c ...

'', which were simple lists of property, or assets, such as land or documents, or transactions transferring property.

Roman official chronicles

''Fasti Magistrales'', ''Annales'' or ''Historici'', were concerned with the several festivals, and everything relating to religious practice and the

gods A deity or god is a supernatural being who is considered divine or sacred. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines deity as a god or goddess, or anything revered as divine. C. Scott Littleton defines a deity as "a being with powers greater ...

, and the

magistrate The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judici ...

s; to the

emperors An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...

, their birthdays, offices, days consecrated to them, with feasts and ceremonies established in their honor or for their prosperity. They came to be denominated ''magni'', "great," by way of distinction from the bare calendar, or ''fasti diurni'' ("everyday records"). The word ''fasti'' thus came to be used in the general sense of

annals Annals ( la, annāles, from , "year") are a concise historical record in which events are arranged chronologically, year by year, although the term is also used loosely for any historical record. Scope The nature of the distinction between ann ...

or historical records.

''Fasti consulares''

''Fasti consulares'' were official chronicles in which years were denoted by the respective

consul Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states throug ...

s and other magistrates, often with the principal events that happened during their consulates, but sometimes not. An example is the ''fasti Capitolini'', a modern name assigned because they were deposited in 1547 in the courtyard of the

Palazzo dei Conservatori The Capitolium or Capitoline Hill ( ; it, Campidoglio ; la, Mons Capitolinus ), between the Forum and the Campus Martius, is one of the Seven Hills of Rome. The hill was earlier known as ''Mons Saturnius'', dedicated to the god Saturn. Th ...

on the

Capitoline Hill The Capitolium or Capitoline Hill ( ; it, Campidoglio ; la, Mons Capitolinus ), between the Forum and the Campus Martius, is one of the Seven Hills of Rome. The hill was earlier known as ''Mons Saturnius'', dedicated to the god Saturn. Th ...

on order of Alessandro Farnese, who kept them temporarily in his villa after their excavation from the Roman forum in 1545 or 1546 (funded by Farnese).

Michelangelo Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (; 6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564), known as Michelangelo (), was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was insp ...

, who designed the complex of three palaces on the hill, also restored the tables of the fasti. The Palazzo today is one of the

Capitoline Museums The Capitoline Museums (Italian: ''Musei Capitolini'') are a group of art and archaeological museums in Piazza del Campidoglio, on top of the Capitoline Hill in Rome, Italy. The historic seats of the museums are Palazzo dei Conservatori and Pala ...

, which serve a double duty as museums and city government buildings. The fasti are located in the Sala della Lupa, the same room as the bronze wolf. More pieces discovered after the Renaissance were placed with it.

Discovery

The ''fasti consulares'' were discovered as 30 marble fragments in the forum. With them were 26 fragments of ''Acta Triumpharum'', since called the ''fasti triumphales''. Both lists were restored as distinct records. The restoration was based nearly entirely on the observations of

Onofrio Panvinio The erudite Augustinian Onofrio Panvinio or Onuphrius Panvinius (23 February 1529 – 27 April 1568) was an Italian historian and antiquary, who was librarian to Cardinal Alessandro Farnese. Life and work Panvinio was born in Verona. At the ...

and

Pirro Ligorio Pirro Ligorio ( October 30, 1583) was an Italian architect, painter, antiquarian, and garden designer during the Renaissance period. He worked as the Vatican's Papal Architect under Popes Paul IV and Pius IV, designed the fountains at Villa d’ ...

, who were standing at the top of the trench in which a portion of wall was showing, featuring inscriptional material between

pilaster In classical architecture Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...

s. They conferred with Michelangelo.

Pope Paul III Pope Paul III ( la, Paulus III; it, Paolo III; 29 February 1468 – 10 November 1549), born Alessandro Farnese, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 13 October 1534 to his death in November 1549. He came to ...

had authorized the mining of stone for St. Peter's in 1540 and Michelangelo was in fact protestingly working on its design also. The pope was following the widespread convention that prevailed in the Renaissance of ripping up the structures of the past to reuse in building structures they considered even more magnificent. The scholars were collaborating to save what they could. A resident colony of quarrymen did not pause in the slightest but went on dismantling buildings. All trace of structures in that part of the forum vanished between August 15 and September 14, 1546. The stone was sold to cutters for reuse or to lime burners for the creation of cement. None of these proceedings were in any way archaeological. Cardinal Farnese assigned the scholars to watch the diggings. Collecting a team they moved swiftly to rescue what they could, sinking tunnels to the side to search for fragments. Subsequently, more fragments turned up embedded in buildings then in use, showing that the area had been less intensely mined previously, and casting doubt of the location of the original source of the fragments. It has been estimated that the consular lists were in four entablatures several feet high: I covering AUC 1-364; II, 365-461; III, 462-600; IV, 601-745, running to 766 in the margin. They were not published, however, as two lists; instead, Marliani in 1549 (first publication, Rome), Sigonius in 1550 (Modena), Robortelli in 1555 (Venice) and others chose to combine the information into a unified list, which was carried forward under the name ''fasti capitolini''. The editors took certain freedoms, such as filling in missing magistrates from other records as they thought best and filling in missing dates AUC to give the appearance of a continuous yearly chronicle, at the same time concealing the problems. Typically representations under the name ''capitolini'' are not that. There were in fact two different original lists placed under that name to which were added fragments found in 1816-1818, 1872–1878 and a final one from the

Tiber river The Tiber ( ; it, Tevere ; la, Tiberis) is the third-longest river in Italy and the longest in Central Italy, rising in the Apennine Mountains in Emilia-Romagna and flowing through Tuscany, Umbria, and Lazio, where it is joined by the Riv ...

in 1888, unrestored. All the fragments became CIL I under ''Fragmenta Quae Dicuntur Capitolini'', "Fragments Called Capitolini" and ''Cetera Quae Supersunt Fragmenta'', "Other Remaining Fragments."

Content

The unified list states the magistrates for each AUC from the first year of the first king to the death of

Augustus Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pri ...

. The marble entablatures were erected at the order of Augustus, based on information available to the Romans then, although the nature and validity of this information remains unknown. The degree of detail suggests that they were based on previous republican chronicles. The identification of their ancient location is controversial. The two theories are that they were in or part of the ''regia'', or palace, of the

College of Pontiffs The College of Pontiffs ( la, Collegium Pontificum; see ''collegium'') was a body of the ancient Roman state whose members were the highest-ranking priests of the state religion. The college consisted of the '' pontifex maximus'' and the other '' ...

, or that they were on a commemorative arch Augustus had constructed. The fasti state a list of kings followed by the republican consuls for each year, with the ''magistri equitum'' and the ''tribuni militares'' for years in which these magistrates were eponymous instead of consuls; that is, once the practice of naming the year after the heads of state began, there had to be a head of state whether king, dictator, consul, master or tribune, regardless of what body held the power. The list features multiple dating schemes. To the right are years from the beginning of the republic preceded by an. or ann. for ''anno'', "in the year." To the left every ten years is a numeral stating the AUC year starting with CCXC (the editors typically fill out these schemes; the list is seldom quoted as it is). The length of reign is given for the kings (the sum does not match the first republican AUC). In addition 5-year lustrations ("purgation", a ceremony cleaning the city of sin) and the

censors Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governments ...

conducting them are stated, which list is sometimes called the fasti censorii by moderns and stated as a third fasti capitolini. Feeney argues that the multiple scheme is evidence that the fasti were Augustan rather than republican. The kings are given precedence at the top and the AUC at the left as though they were superimposed on a formerly republican fasti. Moreover, the 5-year ''lustra'' date to 28 BC when the temple of Mars Ultor ("Mars the Avenger"), the imperial god, was constructed and took precedence over the temple of Jupiter on the Capitoline. After that time the emperor must be one of the censors, who now presided over banging in the yearly nail at Mars Ultor instead of Jupiter (the setting of this nail marked the transition of the year).

Dating

The republican dates given to the right are those of the

Varronian chronology This is a list of Roman consul, consuls known to have held office, from the beginning of the Roman Republic to the latest use of the title in Roman Empire, Imperial times, together with those magistrates of the Republic who were appointed in place ...

; that is, those calculated by the scholar,

Marcus Terentius Varro Marcus Terentius Varro (; 116–27 BC) was a Roman polymath and a prolific author. He is regarded as ancient Rome's greatest scholar, and was described by Petrarch as "the third great light of Rome" (after Vergil and Cicero). He is sometimes calle ...

. His republic begins in the year 510/509 BC by modern calculation. These were the official imperial dates. Many other dates and chronologies existed, notably those of

Livy Titus Livius (; 59 BC – AD 17), known in English as Livy ( ), was a Ancient Rome, Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, titled , covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditiona ...

, with which the emperor must have been familiar, but he did not forbid their use in unofficial contexts. The AUC chronology does not exactly correspond; it is later than the Varronian by a year.

Censorinus Censorinus was a Roman grammarian and miscellaneous writer from the 3rd century AD. Biography He was the author of a lost work ''De Accentibus'' and of an extant treatise ''De Die Natali'', written in 238, and dedicated to his patron Quintus ...

, who went over Varro's calculations, he says, explains that Ulpius and Pontianus were consuls in the 1014th year from the re-founding of the

Olympic games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

(776 BC); that is,

Olympiad An olympiad ( el, Ὀλυμπιάς, ''Olympiás'') is a period of four years, particularly those associated with the ancient and modern Olympic Games. Although the ancient Olympics were established during Greece's Archaic Era, it was not until ...

254.2 (second year of the 254th Olympiad) and that this year was AUC 991, starting by modern calculations January 1, 238 AD. Varro's AUC 1 therefore was 754/753 BC. The further identifications of Ulpius and Pontianus remain a mystery, as they are only named by Censorinus, but the names are irrelevant to the argument. The republic began in Varro's view in . Solinus observed that Gaius Pompeius Gallus and Quintus Verranius were consuls in Olympiad 207.1, and that this year was 801 AUC, counting from the foundation of Rome at Olympiad 7.1. By modern calculation this is 49 AD. He was relying on the official dating scheme, which must have been the ''fasti consulares''. In Varro's chronology this is AUC 802. Simple subtraction shows that AUC 1 in Augustus' fasti is 753/752 BC. The fasti give to the start of the republic a date of , but some editors "correct" all the AUC to Varronian. Similarly the fasti run to the death of Augustus in 13 AD (14 in the Varronian). This is not a difference in the starting date of the republic or the year of Augustus' death, which remain in the same years relative to surrounding events in either case; instead, the year of AUC 1 differs.

''Fasti triumphales''

The ''Fasti Triumphales'' contained a list in chronological order of persons who had obtained a

triumph The Roman triumph (Latin triumphus) was a celebration for a victorious military commander in ancient Rome. For later imitations, in life or in art, see Trionfo. Numerous later uses of the term, up to the present, are derived directly or indirectl ...

, together with the name of the conquered people. Fragments of such a list were found mixed in with the fragments of the ''fasti capitolini'', were also restored by

and are in the same room at the Palazzo dei Conservatori. The ''acta triumphorum'' were on four panels, I covering AUC 1-452; II, 453-532; III, 533-625 and IV, 628-735, ending in 19 BC. The triumphs begin with those of

Romulus Romulus () was the legendary foundation of Rome, founder and King of Rome, first king of Ancient Rome, Rome. Various traditions attribute the establishment of many of Rome's oldest legal, political, religious, and social institutions to Romulus ...

. The fragmentary ''Fasti Triumphales'' were unearthed together with the ''Fasti Capitolini'', and partially restored. Renaissance antiquarian Onofrio Panvinio, Onofrio Panvinio's
''De fasti et triumphi Romanorum a Romulo usque ad Carolum V''
Giacomo Strada, Venice, 1557, continued where the ancient ''Fasti'' left off. The last triumph recorded by Panvinio, which he described as a Roman triumph "over the infidel," was the Royal Entry of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V into Rome on April 5, 1536, which took place while Charles was marching northward after his Conquest of Tunis (1535), conquest of Tunis in 1535.

''Fasti Potentini''

The ''

Fasti Potentini The ''Fasti Potentini'' are a fragmentary list of Roman consuls from AD 86 to 118, originally erected at Potenza, Potentia in Lucania, a region of southern Italy. Together with similar inscriptions, such as the ''Fasti Capitolini'' and ''Fasti Tr ...

'' is a list of consuls from

Potentia Potenza (, also , ; , Potentino dialect: ''Putenz'') is a ''comune'' in the Southern Italy, Italian region of Basilicata (former Lucania). Capital of the Province of Potenza and the Basilicata region, the city is the highest regional capital an ...

Lucania Lucania was a historical region of Southern Italy. It was the land of the Lucani, an Oscan people. It extended from the Tyrrhenian Sea to the Gulf of Taranto. It bordered with Samnium and Campania in the north, Apulia in the east, and Brutti ...

, and probably dating to the early second century. The ''Potentini'' gives a partial record of the consuls from AD 86 to 93, and from 112 to 116.

Priestly ''fasti''

The ''Annales Pontificum'' or '' Annales maximi'', "Annals of the

Priests A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in p ...

," were annually exhibited in public on a white table, on which the memorable events of the year, with special mention of the prodigies, were set down in abbreviated manner. Other ''fasti sacerdotales'' ("priestly ''fasti''") include the ''fasti augurales'' of the

augur An augur was a priest and official in the classical Roman world. His main role was the practice of augury, the interpretation of the will of the gods by studying the flight of birds. Determinations were based upon whether they were flying i ...

''Fasti Diurni''

''Fasti Diurni'', divided into and , were a kind of official year-book, with dates and directions for religious ceremonies, court-days, market-days, divisions of the month, and the like. Until 304 BC the lore of the ''calendaria'' remained the exclusive and lucrative monopoly of the priesthood; but in that year

Gnaeus Flavius Gnaeus Flavius ('' fl.'' 4th century BC) was the son of a freedman (''libertinus'') and rose to the office of aedile in the Roman Republic. Flavius was secretary ('' scriba'') to the consul Appius Claudius, a civil service job paid from the publ ...

, a pontifical secretary, introduced the custom of publishing in the forum tables containing the requisite information, besides brief references to victories, triumphs, prodigies, etc. This list was the origin of the public Roman calendar, in which the days were divided into weeks of eight days each, and indicated by the letters A–H. Each day was marked by a certain letter to show its nature; thus the letters F., N., N.P., F.P., Q. Rex C.F., C., EN., stood for , , in some unexplained sense, , , and . The were partly fasti and partly nefasti. Ovid's ''

Fasti In ancient Rome, the ''fasti'' (Latin plural) were chronological or calendar-based lists, or other diachronic records or plans of official and religiously sanctioned events. After Rome's decline, the word ''fasti'' continued to be used for simil ...

'' is a poetical description of the Roman festivals of the first six months, written to illustrate the ''Fasti'' published by

Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, and ...

after he remodelled the Roman year. Upon the cultivators fewer feasts, sacrifices, ceremonies and holidays were enjoined than on the inhabitants of cities; and the rustic ''fasti'' contained little more than the ceremonies of the calends, and , the fairs, signs of zodiac, increase and decrease of the days, the tutelary gods of each month, and certain directions for rustic labours to be performed each month.

Extant fasti

A considerable number of fasti have been discovered. The Praenestine calendar (''Fasti praenestini''), discovered in 1770, arranged by the famous grammarian

Verrius Flaccus Marcus Verrius Flaccus (c. 55 BCAD 20) was a Ancient Rome, Roman grammarian and teacher who flourished under Augustus Caesar, Augustus and Tiberius. Life He was a freedman, and his manumitter has been identified with Verrius Flaccus, an authorit ...

, contains the months of January, March, April, and December, and a portion of February. The tablets give an account of festivals, and also of the triumphs of Augustus and

Tiberius Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus (; 16 November 42 BC – 16 March AD 37) was the second Roman emperor. He reigned from AD 14 until 37, succeeding his stepfather, the first Roman emperor Augustus. Tiberius was born in Rome in 42 BC. His father ...

. There are still two complete calendars in existence, an official list by Philocalus (354), and a

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

version of the official calendar, made by

Polemius Silvius Polemius Silvius ('' fl.'' 5th century) was the author of an annotated Julian calendar that attempted to integrate the traditional Roman festival cycle with the new Christian holy days. His calendar, also referred to as a laterculus or ''fasti'', ...

(448).

Modern fasti

In modern times the word ''fasti'' and its

reflex In biology, a reflex, or reflex action, is an involuntary, unplanned sequence or action and nearly instantaneous response to a stimulus. Reflexes are found with varying levels of complexity in organisms with a nervous system. A reflex occurs ...

es in modern languages have been used formally for quasi-official writings of a diachronic character. Some examples are the official history and traditions of a regiment, in Scotland the ''Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae: the succession of ministers in the Church of Scotland from the reformation'', the first volume of which was produced in 1915 and which is still updated at irregular intervals. Between 1946 and 1987 the International Association for Classical Archaeology (AIAC) published the ''Fasti Archaeologici''. It contained summary notices of excavations through the area of the Roman Empire. The Fasti went online and discontinued paper publication in 2000: the ''Fasti Online'' now contains reports on excavations since the year 2000 in 13 countries, particularly Italy, Bulgaria, Romania, Macedonia, Malta and Albania. It is accompanied by an online journal, ''Fasti Online Documents & Research'', which publishes full and interim reports on archaeological sites in Italy. See under "External links" below.

In popular culture

The

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

television series ''

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

'' features a pontiff calling out the fasti in the Forum at the beginning of each episode.

References

Bibliography

* * * * *

External links

* * * * * * {{cite encyclopedia, title=Fasti, url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/SMIGRA*/Fasti.html, first=William, last=Ramsay, editor-first=William, editor-last=Smith, editor2-first=William, editor2-last=Thayer, encyclopedia=A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquity, publisher=John Murray, University of Chicago, location=London, Chicago, year=2009, orig-year=1875 Roman calendar Latin inscriptions